Arena and Rated Battleground Season 12 is scheduled to end on Tuesday, March 5. At that point, we will determine who is eligible for the end-of-season rewards, a process that should take approximately one week. It's very important for players who feel that they may be eligible for Arena titles and/or the Malevolent Gladiator's Cloud Serpent to refrain from transferring their characters to another realm or faction until after Season 12 ends. The awarding of Season 12 titles and mounts will occur approximately 2 weeks after the season ends.

At the end of the season, Conquest Points will be converted to Honor Points and any honor above 4000 will be converted to gold at a rate of 35 silver per point. The honor cap will remain at 4000.

All Season 12 items will cost Honor Points (equivalent to their previous Conquest Point cost) when the season ends, with the exception of any items with rating requirements attached. These items will no longer be available for purchase.

The next Arena and Rated Battleground season will begin approximately one week after the current season ends. During the break between seasons, all Rated Battleground and Arena matches will be unavailable. Team and Personal Ratings will be reset when Season 13 begins.

Raid Testing Schedule - February 20

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

On Wednesday, February 20, we will be testing more raid encounters in the Throne of Thunder.

Note that we will likely be doing 25-player Normal testing (of many encounters) on Thursday and Friday. I'll post a schedule for those tomorrow.

Each encounter should be available at approximately the listed times below for all Public Test Realms.

Wednesday, February 20

Horridon - 10 Player Heroic
10:30 PST (13:30 EST, 19:30 CET)

Ji-Kun - 10 Player Heroic
13:30 PST (16:30 EST, 22:30 CET)

Primordius - 10 Player Heroic
16:00 PST (19:00 EST, 01:00 CET)

As always, this testing schedule is very fluid and subject to the realities of a beta environment. We might have to change the time of a testing session, change the boss being tested, or cancel a test entirely, due to bugs, server hardware issues, etc. Keep an eye on this forum for the latest information, and thank you in advance for testing and providing feedback.

PTR Class and Set Bonus Issues

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Tuning Adjustments

These are in addition to any previous changes, unless specifically noted.

You can't just apply these to 5.1 numbers. You need to keep the entire suite of changes in mind. I say this because we always get a few players who only see -20% on some ability and get all "Don't nerf me, bro."

That said, feedback on these changes is always welcome. Numbers are more persuasive than feelings. PTR logs are better than simulations, since the latter are very dependent on the talent and time of the person doing the simming.

We like our recent change to a lower cooldown on Avenging Wrath for Retribution in PvP. We like it so much that we want to make it a baseline change for Retribution and not a set bonus, since many PvE paladins are benefiting from shorter wings today, and our recent DPS testing suggests that Ret needs a DPS buff. However, this does mean changing the existing T14 4pc PvE bonus.

For clarification, is the AoE aspect of Howling Blast going to be increased by this 23% single target buff, or will the AoE coefficient be lowered to compensate?
Single-target buff. That's what I meant by damage to secondary targets remains the same.

However, in case it wasn't obvious, these were all single-target changes. We haven't completed AE, healing or tanking changes. Healing or tanking numbers look pretty solid overall though, so don't expect much change there. (And feel free to disagree, but please provide some kind of evidence to back it up.)

I want to play Unholy!
We buffed Unholy early on in the patch and I did mention disease and Scourge Strike buffs as well.

You stated that shadow priest were overpowered in PVP and yet they received a 20% damage buff and now another 5% overall buff in Shadowform how does that make any sense?
We're not convinced that Shadow's OPness in PvP came from overall damage. We think it is probably a combination of many things, and those we hit the hardest were healing and Phantasm. We did nerf the Mind Spike glyph, which will reduce burst.

I'd imagine so since FnB is just a multiplier on the existing spells.
Correct.

Hand of Gul'dan, in metamorphasis form, is chaos wave. Does the 15% buff apply to the chaos wave too?
Yes.

Are there buffs designed to compensate for assassination getting less from the set bonuses?
Partially. This is a challenge for us, because we need to take the set bonuses into account, but everyone needs to function with the old set bonuses as well. We try to look at both situations.

Ret paladin damage will still be outclassed by other melee classes, causing us to be undervalued in the PvE scene, especially with the buffs to DK.
We're not seeing Ret DPS below where we want it on live, except on AE or Cleave fights, which these changes aren't targeted to correct. Again, as I mentioned above, you can't just take 5.1 numbers, mentally add these percentages to them and predict 5.2 numbers. I wish it was that easy, but a whole lot of things change. For example, we missed the mark on the current DK set bonuses, and they have been nerfed in 5.2.

Yeah, I'm thoroughly confused to the Fury nerfs after the MINOR buff to WS, a move that is used AFTER everything else.
Sorry, I brought too much focus to that one issue. Fury's DPS was just too high in 5.2 before these changes. It is a little high in 5.1 as well.

Patch 5.2 PTR Notes - Feb 19 Update

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

General

New Daily Quest Hub:Isle of Thunder.

Heroes fortunate enough to acquire a “Key to the Palace of Lei Shen” can bring it to the Shado-Pan on the Isle of Thunder and use it to infiltrate the fabled treasure vaults of the first emperor. Heroes are tasked with grabbing as much loot as they can within five minutes. Larger chests will have the most loot, including special keys that can be used at the end of the run for a chance at epic gear and other major rewards. Keys are awarded from rare mobs, hidden chests around the island, and from award satchels obtained by completing daily quests.

Taking Over The Farm

Players that have grown attached to working the land at Sunsong Ranch can now acquire purchase the farm land from Farmer Yoon via a quest. The farmhouse becomes a rest point like an Inn, where the player can bind and instantly log out. Work orders will pour into the farm from factions across Pandaria, and completing a work order will earn a reputation boost with the issuing faction.

The option to take over the farm is available to characters that are exalted with the Tillers and have unlocked all 16 farm plots.

Please note: The new Sunsong Ranch features are not available on the PTR, but will be coming soon.

Chi Wave now does 100% more damage and 14% less healing, and no longer costs Chi, and has a 15 second cooldown.

Zen Sphere now has a limit of 2 (was 1), detonates when either the recipient reaches 35% health or the Zen Sphere is dispelled, no longer costs Chi, and has a 10 second cooldown. Its periodic damage has been increased by 22%, periodic healing has been reduced by 61%, its detonation healing has been reduced by 62%, and detonation range has been increased by 40%.

Chi Burst now does 340% more damage and 69% more healing, no longer costs Chi, and has a 30 second cooldown.

For Holy and Discipline, Power Word: Solace replaces Holy Fire. It deals the same damage, and interacts with other spells and abilities in the same manner but does not trigger Atonement, is instant, costs no mana, and restores 1% of maximum mana on each cast. Damage dealt by Power Word: Solace will heal a nearby friendly player within 40 yards of the target for 100% of the damage dealt (50% when healing the Priest).

Power Infusion now increases the Priest's damage by 10% in addition to current effects.

Discipline

Mastery: Shield Discipline now also increases all healing done by a lesser amount, but the bonus provided by Mastery has been reduced by 36%.

Penance now has a range of 40 yards for both friendly and hostile targets (was 40 yards for friendly and 30 yards for hostile targets).

Spirit Shell now provides an absorb shield equal to the average healing and absorb of the triggering spell, including criticals and Divine Aegis. no longer benefits from Mastery, and now properly includes the benefits of Divine Aegis and critical effect chance.

Divine Aegis now causes critical heals to apply an absorb shield on the target for 100% of the amount healed instead of healing for twice as much. In addition, it grants Power Word: Shield a chance equal to the Priest's critical chance for the shield to absorb twice as much damage. is no longer guaranteed when Prayer of Healing is cast. The effect now activates when the spell crits.

Players of the same faction that participated in a fight with Pandaria world bosses (Sha of Anger, Galleon, Nalak the Storm Lord, and Oondasta) now get shared credit for the kill and will be eligible for loot.

Raids, Dungeons and Scenarios

Satchels obtained via the Raid Finder now have a chance to contain additional rewards, including: consumables, Spirits of Harmony, rare pets or mounts, and Raid Finder versions of Normal and Heroic difficulty zone drops that were previously unavailable from Raid Finder encounters!

Mogu Runes of Fate have been added and provides a bonus roll for Throne of Thunder, Nalak the Storm Lord, and Oondasta and are purchased with Lesser Charms of Good Fortune. Elder Charms of Good Fortune will continue to work in Mogu'shan Vaults, Heart of Fear, Terrace of Endless Spring, the Sha of Anger, and Salyis' Warband (Galleon).

The maximum number of Elder Charms of Good Fortune a character can hold has been increased to 20 (was 10).

So this means we are expecting 5.2 on March 5th instead of Feb 26th? I'm actually happy about that, it gives me a week to square away some classes, get all my matts and things in order, and to finish up the Legendary quest line.

They left out the new WW monk skill they added. It's called "Bend over and take it" and it activates automatically if there are any casters in the area, or if ring of peace is down and there are any melee nearby. It automatically teleports you to the graveyard so there's less frustration involved in pvping against... anyone really.

These are in addition to any previous changes, unless specifically noted.

You can't just apply these to 5.1 numbers. You need to keep the entire suite of changes in mind. I say this because we always get a few players who only see -20% on some ability and get all "Don't nerf me, bro."

That said, feedback on these changes is always welcome. Numbers are more persuasive than feelings. PTR logs are better than simulations, since the latter are very dependent on the talent and time of the person doing the simming.

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Yes this is a nerf in a sea of buffs, but the Bloodsurge and Arms Deep Wounds changes ended up being too much of a buff.

I am so freaking confused - with the stuff that is crossed out in the priest changes, does that mean they are undoing the whole mastery doesn't effect spirit shell and divine aegis doesn't always proc from PoH or is it just tooltip updates?